Rockpool redefined

It's been months in the making, but only days in the turnaround:
the new Rockpool has arrived, and it's grand. "The new Rockpool is
all about elegance and sophistication," says owner-chef Neil Perry.
"It's about being able to eat beautiful food, having some kind of
control over the experience, but also letting us take you on a
journey as well." In moving the flagship of one of the country's
blue-chip culinary brands from the George Street site where it
opened in 1989 to the Burns Philp building in the heart of the
city, Perry has done a lot more than scorch his Amex buying fancy
chairs and even fancier kitchen kit. The move, he says, has been a
chance to rethink what the pointy end of the restaurant business is
all about in Sydney today.

Practically speaking, that means delivering all the fun of tasting
menus without the need to be stuck at the table for hours on end.
"We're doing tasting menus that aren't quite tasting menus," says
Perry. After the kitchen sends out a flurry of eight or so canapés
and small plates - mud crab with stir-fried milk and bacon, for
instance, and white-cut chicken with bamboo fried in pork fat -
you've got a choice of one, two or three courses more at dinner
($125, $145 or $165) and a set-menu option of two or three courses
for lunch ($69 or $79). The menus that Perry and head chef Phil
Wood have written play to Rockpool's strengths, with seafood and
Asian influences as central as ever. At lunch, several Rockpool
classics are listed, the stir-fry of squid-ink noodles with squid
and bacon, and the snapper with garam masala and coconut milk among
them. After dark, meanwhile, the gloves are off: lamb saddle with a
Korean-style bo ssäm lamb shoulder, miso-braised beans and ginger
vinaigrette shares billing with the full-throttle likes of Balmain
bug congee with almond tofu, star-anise peanuts and Chinese fried
bread.

"We're giving people the opportunity to see the strength of the
kitchen, see what we can actually do, but also be in the driver's
seat," Perry says. The other big change is that the restaurant now
opens for lunch every weekday, which may see it capture a slice of
the business trade that has proven such a mainstay at Rockpool Bar &
Grill.

The dining room, designed by Grant Cheyne, also sees a shift in
the look, with dark timber hues, towering columns, black
pressed-metal ceilings and an illuminated print by photographer
Earl Carter, a long-time Perry collaborator.

"When I spoke to Grant I just said 'elegant, sophisticated and
sexy'," says Perry. "This is what he gave me. I feel like it's the
same place but we've just kind of morphed into a new experience. I
felt like [George Street] was so appropriate for when we opened in
'89 and this is so appropriate for the 21st century."